Caution

The information on this page details a preliminary estimate of the current benchmark revisions.
The final benchmark revisions for this year have now been released, and CES estimates have been
updated to reflect those benchmarks.
More information about current and previous benchmark revisions is available at
www.bls.gov/ces/tables/home.htm#benchmark.

CES Preliminary Benchmark Announcement

In accordance with usual practice, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is
announcing the preliminary estimate of the upcoming annual benchmark revision to the
establishment survey employment series. The final benchmark revision will be
issued in February 2020 with the publication of the January 2020
Employment Situation news release.

Each year, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey employment estimates are
benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment for the month of March. These counts are derived
from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are
required to file. For national CES employment series, the annual benchmark revisions
over the last 10 years have averaged plus or minus two-tenths of one
percent of total nonfarm employment. The preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision
indicates a downward adjustment to March 2019 total nonfarm employment of -501,000 (-0.3 percent).

Preliminary benchmark revisions are calculated only for the month of March 2019 for the major industry
sectors in table 1. The existing employment series are not updated with the release of the preliminary
benchmark estimate. The data for all CES series will be updated when the final benchmark revision is issued.

Table 1 shows the March 2019 preliminary benchmark
revisions by major industry sector. As is typically the case, many of the individual industry series show
larger percentage revisions than the total nonfarm series, primarily because statistical sampling
error is greater at more detailed levels than at an aggregated level.

Table 1. National Current Employment Statistics March 2019
Preliminary Benchmark Revisions by Major Industry Sector